Could DJ's Freethrows Ruin Clippers Championship Dreams?

I feel as though, since,DJ is such a prob in the 4th with freethrows, what's going to happen during the playoff. DJ is turning out to be, one of the league best defenders. Since he can't hit the freethows, doc might have to bench him in the 4th. But who is going to, to start at center and guard the paint. Could DJ be the xfactor?

ClippersDA

01/29/2014 - 10:55 AM PST

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I don't get this - you still have to get in the bonus to send dj to the line. Why do people always bring oj the fourth quarter?

MunoValente

01/29/2014 - 11:05 AM PST

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Jordan has a higher career FT% than Ben Wallace. Shaq's championship year with Miami he was almost as bad at the line as Jordan or Wallace.

Before we're in the penalty the intentional fouls aren't a problem and with less than 2 minutes you keep the foul after intentional fouls off the ball.

ClipperPostman

01/29/2014 - 11:28 AM PST

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This is a ridiculous thread. Has he cost us a game yet? As stated above

Ben Wallace was a notorious free throw air baller and they still won a championship.

You can't foul off ball in the last 2 minutes when Free Throws can make

or a break a game. And they don't call any plays for DJ.

So how can someone cost you game when they won't be shooting

FT's in the last 2 minutes?

Laak

01/29/2014 - 11:32 AM PST

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Before the season began, I thought 2 things need to happen for Clippers to be a Championship contender. One is BG needs to improve, and he has immensely. The second is DJ needs to have a higher FT%.

There's been so many games last season where the Clippers toss up bad shots just to avoid DJ getting hacked. Teams would do anything to win in the playoff, and they'd definitely use that strategy. You can say Hack-a-DJ would only work if Clippers are already in bonus. But in most cases, teams are in the bonus with around 4 minutes to play in the quarter. That's enough opportunities for opposing teams make a run. I don't expect DJ to hit 60% FT, but at least make half of them.

MunoValente

01/29/2014 - 11:48 AM PST

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So we're worried about a two minute stretch, in which an opposing team may or may not use a tactic that isn't all that popular?

If we can't afford to sit a guy who isn't even one of our best two players for two minutes, when we have the advantage of the other team being in the penalty, we have worse problems we need to address.

Voyeur

01/29/2014 - 11:49 AM PST

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It seems as if Doc has figured out how to utilize DJ very well so far and knows when to take him out. I can't think of a game in which we were really hurt by DJ's free throws...and trust me when I say I've been a critic of that aspect of his game. I will say this...if he could only make 60-65%, he'd be all the more effective.

uncool

01/29/2014 - 12:25 PM PST

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Dumb thread. Doc knows how to coach. In tight games he puts DJ in on defense & subs him out on offense. It's not a problem.

Diamond909

01/29/2014 - 12:35 PM PST

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Shaq has survived and won 4 ring's but I know DJ isn't Shaq so, it can still be done, just more challenging.

Icecoldclipper

01/29/2014 - 12:48 PM PST

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Has not been horrible outside of the Bulls game so it seems his really bad shooting from the line are far and in between games.

Laak

01/29/2014 - 02:37 PM PST

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The Spurs sent Howard to the FT line 16 times in a span of 3 minutes yesterday. Howard's shooting 52% from FT, over 10% better than DJ. If Howard's getting fouled like that, I can't see how elite teams like Spurs would not take advantage of the situation during the playoffs.

MunoValente

01/29/2014 - 02:50 PM PST

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The Spurs lost yesterday. The Rockets grew their lead when the Spurs did their foul nonsense. Also it can be a little trickier with Howard, because unlike Jordan he actually has a lot of offense ran through him, which would get disrupted if he sat for 3 minutes.

GhostShip

01/29/2014 - 02:52 PM PST

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Honestly without a decent back up center the answer is MAYBE

Agent0

01/29/2014 - 04:24 PM PST

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He should have stuck it out in terms of working hard with Thate. Improving your jumpshot isn't linear, it's sort of a 1 step forward, two steps back, two steps forward, 1 step back until you start to progress. Really he just needed to get up to being a consistent 55%+ FT shooter.

CP3Best

01/29/2014 - 04:40 PM PST

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That is a ridiculous notion, DJ attempts around 4 free throws per game, and usually they're in the 1st 3 quarters not the 4th quarter and certainly not down the stretch, as a matter of fact

he stepped up and made them when they counted, forgot who was that team we beat, up by one play defense DJ gets rebound and makes 1 of 2 to seal it, and then shatters their hopes

by stealing their inbounds pass, he Won us the game. He made them when they mattered.

clipper321

01/29/2014 - 04:48 PM PST

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I echo the sentiments of everyone else here. It's ridiculous to believe that DJs free throw percentage will cost the team a championship. What will cost the team a championship are defensive breakdowns.

Voyeur

01/29/2014 - 04:51 PM PST

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A defensive breakdown like having to remove our rim protector at crunch time due to hack-a-DJ?

BOOYAH!

Kidding! I think we'll be okay with DJ. I just couldn't resist.

cliptastic

01/29/2014 - 05:16 PM PST

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That was the awesome 17 point comeback win against Dallas a few weeks ago. I agree, he doesn't go to the line a ton to make a huge difference. There may be instances where he could help lose a close game, but within the 2 minute mark, they can't foul him off the ball anyway. We may have to pull him out at times until then, but at least we'll have our best rim protector for the last 2 minutes of the game.

MunoValente

01/29/2014 - 05:20 PM PST

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Couple other things to consider about the effectiveness of intentional fouling are that even if Jordan shoots an bad percentage at the line, our turnover rate goes down to almost zero that possession and we still get chances at offensive rebounds (our offensive rebound rate is about 28% with Jordan on the floor), so even with Jordan bricking FTs, our offensive isn't even that terribly inefficient.

ClippersDA

01/29/2014 - 05:41 PM PST

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All that will happen is doc will pull dj and then we will shove then we will keep giving the ball to blake. The only defense is to foul him and he will get free throws on every trip.

ClippersDA

01/29/2014 - 05:42 PM PST

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Also a lot of playoff teams have bad foul shooters. Bogut and howard immediately come to mind.

FightOnRon

01/29/2014 - 06:24 PM PST

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Agree,people are having VDN flashbacks. Doc let's it happen maybe twice and he makes the change. Vinny would wait for 10 times.

Clipswhit

01/29/2014 - 08:16 PM PST

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DJ is a career 30% from the line in the playoffs, plus is have to assume our offensive rebound rate plummets when our best rebounder is at the line.

Steady818

01/29/2014 - 09:03 PM PST

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Hack a DJ could be as good as a turnover most of time.. That being said unless it becomes so frequent the amount of Free Throws DJ takes so far has done us no harm... He hasn't been to the line frequent enough yet.. I honestly don't believe it will be a factor.. With BG our most frequent free throw shooter knocking most of them down we have become less of a liability on the line.. It was a big problem when BG would go 3 for 10 and DJ 0 for 6 but now with BG being a lot more efficient at the line it hurts us so much less

ClipperKyle32

01/29/2014 - 11:55 PM PST

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In this case tonight. DJ just won us this game. Free-Throws

MunoValente

01/30/2014 - 12:03 AM PST

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The intentional fouling utterly failed for the Wizards tonight. Took the game out of the hands of their team that was playing pretty well and just gave us the win. A failed intentional fouling strategy pretty much cost the Mavericks their game tonight too. Didn't help the Spurs against the Rockets yesterday either.

If I was player I wouldn't like the coach telling us to foul in that situation, it's like the coach telling you he doesn't believe in your ability to get stops in normal play.

Clippers_FTW

01/30/2014 - 12:06 AM PST

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HAHHAAHHAH DJ read this thread this morning. #stfu hahaha

Kingkanyon

01/30/2014 - 12:21 AM PST

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If Hack a Ben didn't seem to Hurt the Piston's, then I doubt it will hurt the Clips with DJ. This strategy has been used forever, it doesn't necessarily work in the Playoff's but it could win you and loose you games in the Regular Season.

ClipperB23

01/30/2014 - 12:23 AM PST

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haha i was about to say the same! DJ came through in the clutch tonight with those 4 FT's in a row.

worm

01/30/2014 - 09:02 AM PST

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Nice job on DJ's FT.

namzug

01/30/2014 - 09:47 AM PST

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DJ's shots don't look as bad as his percentage suggests. Since he has taken a lot of the arch off his shot, he has been hitting more. Maybe that is all he was missing. I'm not saying he will be a high % free throw shooter, just less of a liability.

Laak

01/30/2014 - 09:48 AM PST

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This is what I mean. If DJ could knock down FTs like yesterday, there'd be no offensively liabilities and we'd be great defensively at the same time.

toohipcliptoslip

01/30/2014 - 05:39 PM PST

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No. If he hits a FT I consider it gravy. I expect him to miss. You can love your girlfriend so much that you ignore PMS

Grillinnap

01/30/2014 - 09:18 PM PST

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His shot from the line kinda changed. It's line drive-ish now.

namzug

02/06/2014 - 09:54 AM PST

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Since he's took all the arch out, he has been hitting at higher rate. He has been hitting pretty well during clutch situations the last few games too.

If he starts to gain confidence with his free throw shooting, maybe we can start using him a bit more when he has an advantage offensively. Look at what Blake's confidence has done for him. I think DJ has pretty good foot work, the only thing that drives me nuts is when he gets the ball stripped. If we try it we could get our shooters more room, if they keep trying cheat off their man to strip DJ.

Icecoldclipper

02/06/2014 - 11:22 AM PST

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Tell this dude its the 4th quarter the whole game and he could get up to 60% by end season.

wessleejr

02/06/2014 - 11:26 AM PST

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IMO his FT is improving compared to last season. but I noticed that Doc pulled DJ out when we are leading in the fourth quarter and put Blake at center and Turks in PF, I think we need LO to play at the Center in this situation to avoid a hack a DJ.